ThinkFirst donates 50 bike helmets for youth

Posted by Navajo Times | Mar 22, 2018 | Community |

WINDOW ROCK

Recently, Jodee Dennison, director of ThinkFirst Navajo – Eve’s Fund’s Injury Prevention Program, delivered 50 new bike helmets, in three different sizes, to Tom Riggenbach, executive director of NavajoYes in Window Rock, according to a news release from Eve’s Fund.

Navajo Yes Courtesy photo
Diné youth, members of Navajo Yes, are among 50 who received donated bike helmets from ThinkFirst Navajo.

This brings a total of 325 helmets that Eve’s Fund has donated to NavajoYes over the past several years.

“We are pleased to support NavajoYes’ Diné Bike Project once again with the mutual aim of keeping kids out on the trails safe at all times,” Dennison said. “What so many people don’t understand are the ramifications of a traumatic brain injury, and the fact that this is almost always preventable,” she said. “The evidence is clear that bicycle helmets can reduce the risk for head injuries by 85 percent. That’s why we aim to teach kids to Think First and use their minds to protect their bodies.”

The Diné Bike Project makes restored bikes of all types available to schools, communities and families across the Navajo Nation. Young people receive a bike and helmet, only after providing community service such as restoring trails, repairing bikes, or volunteering at other youth events.

For more information on all of NavajoYes’ health and fitness programs, visit their website at: http://navajoyes.org. Each child who receives a helmet will be properly fitted and will be required to pledge that they will “always wear a bike helmet, on every ride, near or far, fast or slow” and will “promise to remind their friends and family to wear one also.”

Riggenbach said, “We deeply appreciate Eve’s Fund’s commitment to insuring that all of our young riders are ‘safe riders’ and that they are being protected with helmets.

For more information on Eve’s Fund, visit http://evecrowellsfund.org/